Ten brings Zeebox social TV to Australia

Product placement on popular television shows such as MasterChef and The Voice is set to go to the next level after Network Ten joined rival channels in announcing a joint venture with UK-based social media platform Zeebox.

To launch in Australia later this year, Zeebox is a so-called “second screen” TV platform and consumer service. It will go up against Seven Network’s alliance with Fango, Nine’s Jump-in app, being launched in time for the Olympics, and the recently upgraded ABC iView app as new ways for TV networks to tap in to audience engagement with online social media platforms.

It comes as networks respond to an growing trend by viewers to multi-task with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets while watching TV. In its State of the Media Democracy survey of more than 2000 Australians across four generations, Deloitte found 60 per cent of Australian viewers were doing this.

Zeebox works on iPhones, iPads and Google Android-based mobile devices and is designed to complement television shows by letting users find out more information, interact with other viewers about what they are watching and, importantly for commercial networks, buy things that they see on screen.

The app works by analysing the context of live television and uses that to aggregate things from the web that are relevant to what consumers are watching. It is already involved with the UK’s largest pay TV provider, BSkyB, which holds 10 per cent of the company.

Network Ten chief operating officer Jon Marquard said the launch of Zeebox in Australia was a key part of the network’s digital media strategy. It differed from current offerings from rival networks as it was a separate, network agnostic platform and he hoped other networks would use Zeebox as well.

“While we want everyone to watch Ten, we don’t expect that viewers only ever watch Ten,” he said. “So we wanted an app that is agnostic over all channels and can have the ability for people to access a whole range of channels.

“Channels don’t need a commercial relationship like ours with Zeebox to start using it.”

He said advertisers were clamouring for an integrated solution that enabled them to connect with viewers on different platforms, and the option to “click to buy” items featured in shows had strong potential. However, he believed it was important to focus first on using the service to enhance viewer experience.

Founder and chief executive of popular Australian-based events app Roamz, Jonathan Barouch, said the power of pairing social media with television broadcasts became apparent to him when Roamz was featured on Nine Network’s talent show The Voice.

“When we were mentioned our traffic went up about 600 per cent, people all over the country started adding content, so clearly there is power from television integrating with social,” Mr Barouch said.

Zeebox Australia will be run by internet investor and entrepreneur Craig Blair, previously a principal at netus, a News Ltd-backed technology investment company.